The Hurt From Hurricane Harvey

Looking at the damage of Hurricane Harvey, comparing it to other major storms and how, after almost three years, people are still suffering.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit our home, Houston, Texas as well as other areas as a category 4 hurricane and America’s worst rainstorm in US history that was said to have cost us $125 billion in damage. Hurricane Harvey covered one third of Houston with floods and forced nearly 40,000 people out of their homes. Millions of people were affected by hurricane Harvey and some continue to be affected to this day. Although hurricane Harvey did not discriminate when it came to race and income, lower income people seem to be impacted on much larger scale in numerous ways. 

One of the ways in which hurricane Harvey affected low income people more is because lower income people are more likely to live in flood prone areas. In an article by Jeremy Deaton, he talks about how “Houston spends more on infrastructure in wealthier neighborhoods”. This means that people with lower incomes are typically living in areas where infrastructure was not a main priority as it isn’t where the money is at. Many low-income areas do not have proper drainage and instead have ditches for the water to go to but the ditches quickly fill up and overflow causing it to flood quicker. This becomes a serious problem as these lower income people get flooded quicker and on top of that, don’t have the resources to fix the damage that it costs.

Another way that lower income people are affected on a greater scale is that lower income people are less likely to have flood insurance as it doesn’t seem to be one of the main priorities in our day to day lives. In an article by Kimberly Amadeo in The Balance, she says that when hurricane Harvey hit, it “damaged 204,000 homes and that “three fourths were outside of the 100-year flood plain. Those homeowners did not have insurance”. Statistically speaking, that number is extremely large considering that is the majority. This has since changed after hurricane Harvey as many Houstonians are realizing the severe damages that flooding can cause and the fact that Houston is very prone to it.

Hurricane Harvey not only affected people financially but mentally as well. In a report from The Kaiser Family Foundation it is said that for low income people, the effects of hurricane Harvey resulted in the statistic that “one in six affected residents say someone in their household has a health condition that is new or worse as a result of Harvey”. This is due to the fact that people who were affected by Harvey with low incomes feel a greater financial burden which results in depression and anxiety. This also brings up an interesting factor being that, people with preexisting mentally impairing conditions seemed to worsened due to this traumatic event. This goes to show that the financial burden American’s face is so high that it can lead to mental illnesses which hurricane Harvey exemplifies.

In an article by Manny Fernandez, he talks about how surveys have shown that “27 percent of Hispanic Texans whose homes were badly damaged reported that those homes remained unsafe to live in”. This unsettling fact is something that is very prevalent in regard to low income people and minorities being greatly affected by hurricane Harvey. Many people have reported that their homes are still unsafe to live in to this day as a result. A lot of low-income families have also reported the lack of help they have received after hurricane Harvey which is disappointing to hear considering the amount of funding Houston has received as a result of this event.

It was Friday, August 25th when 27 trillion gallons of water, 275 trillion pounds, were dumped all across the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. This is equal to about 40,893,404.5 Olympic sized swimming pools. Storm surge reached its highest point at 12.5 feet, but this was nothing compared to the rain. Hurricane Harvey set the record for the most tropical cyclone rainfall in any one given area in the United States in the last fifty years at an average of 52 inches of rainfall across the affected areas. Juanita Constible reported “At least 65 people drowned in the resulting flooding and another 28 died from storm-related causes.”

It had only been two days before it hit land that Harvey was sitting as a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, jumping to a Category 4 hurricane as it passed over a hot eddy on its way inland. This eddy is a spot in the ocean that is one to two degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the ocean water around it. This increase in temperature, though seemingly small, pushes more energy into the body of the storm, and ultimately led to the massive rain fall and devastating flooding Harris County and many other regions suffered from. All combined with the storms 130 mile per hour wind speed, Hurricane Harvey left its path of destruction and its legacy in the homes and minds of millions of Americans. 

In comparison to its fellow natural disaster and tropical phenomenon Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Harvey takes first place with its financial devastation with $125 billion in damages to Ike’s $30 billion in damages. However, Ike has some interesting counterpoints that make one wonder how Harvey ended up being so horrible. Hurricane Ike, as a Category 2 storm, sustained 110 mile per hour wind and created tremendous damage all along the coast with a storm surge reaching a staggering 22 feet in height. This is almost twice the size of the storm surge of Hurricane Harvey. The true dramatic contrast, and the root to why one storm created so much more damage than the other, is the rainfall. Hurricane Ike only accumulated a meager 15 inches of rain. This is not even a third of the amount that Harvey unleased. Hurricane Harvey’s path of destruction reached far more inland than that of Hurricane Ike, which stayed closer to the coast, allowing it affect more regions and communities. 

Now, how is it possible that, after almost three years, there are people in the greater Houston area who could still be dealing with repercussions? According to data pulled from the Kinder Houston Area Survey, a majority of those who participated reported a loss of income from either themselves or within their household due to the storm. An even greater majority reported that they did not have flood insurance on their homes. It is interesting to note that out of those who participated in the survey, less than half reported damage to their homes, and the majority of those who did report damage claimed it to be minor. Yet, the majority of the survey participants also reported that they knew someone whose home was damaged due to the hurricane and more than half claimed it to be major damage. This is all important to note when considering the overall damage of Hurricane Harvey and the fact that recovery is still an on going process. 

As of 2018, most Harris County residents feel that we our local government had not made enough of an effort to protect Houstonians and their homes from flooding, however, that had a positive outlook with the majority feeling confident in the fact that the local government is taking steps to prevent such damage of happening again in the future. 

Works Cited

Amadeo, Kimberly. “Hurricane Harvey Facts, Damage and Costs.” The Balance, The Balance, 25 June 2019, www.thebalance.com/hurricane-harvey-facts-damage-costs-4150087.

Deaton, Jeremy. “Hurricane Harvey Hit Low-Income Communities Hardest.” ThinkProgress, 1 Sept. 2017, archive.thinkprogress.org/hurricane-harvey-hit-low-income-communities-hardest-6d13506b7e60/.

Dottle, Rachel, et al. “Hurricane Harvey's Impact - And How It Compares To Other Storms.” FiveThirtyEight, FiveThirtyEight, 2 Sept. 2017, fivethirtyeight.com/features/hurricane-harveys-impact-and-how-it-compares-to-other-storms/.